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| Page Views: 7,428 Last Visit to San Francisco: March, 2006 I Visit Here Frequently | Bagdad by the Bay by atufft - last update: Mar 9, 2008 |
Locals call it "the city" | Monterrey Ave in South Central San Francisco |
If Herb Caen, famed SF Chronicle gossip columnist, had envisioned the current Bush inspired Iraqi crisis, no doubt he would have dubbed San Francisco something other than "Bagdad by the Bay". The expresson nevertheless fits this city that mixes urbane sophistication, cultural and technological innovation, and social tolerance unlike any other major city in North America.
Sometimes regarded as one of America's most densely populated cities, because of its percieved wall to wall housing, in fact San Francisco is much less dense than most parts of New York City or any of a number of other world cities where highrise buildings stud the landscape. In SF, highrises are confined mostly to the landfill of the financial district and shopping districts downtown, and so for the most part the density remains confined to multistory woodframe homes built on small carefully landscaped lots before the Great Depression of the 1930s. Blanketing over a geographical knot of unusually steep hills and narrow valleys, quaint San Francisco homes, most famously Victorian in architecture, cling to each other and to hillsides, alternately weathering foggy summer evenings or sunny winter mornings. The city hosts a surprising and diverse ethnic and lifestyle mix, unevenly distributed among some 91 neightborhoods with 11 districts. Each eighborhood has it's own unique geographical, architectural, meteorlogical, and historical qualities that foster separate identity and innovation, passing influences that ultimately descend down upon the politics of "the city" as a whole, at City Hall, or within one of America's wealthiest financial districts.
Culturally renewed virtually every decade during the past century, the city faces by grassroots inpetus new socio-political issues, and each of these epochs are mirrored by the buildings and residents of the city. During the 1960's, the Haight-Ashbury district, which is within walking distance of Golden Gate Park became a magnet for the young and lyrical focus as a neighborhood of free love and long hair fashion. The Summer of Love in 1967 marked the emergence of flower power, psychadelic drugs, and opposition to the War in Vietnam. Evidence of this period style remains in the neighborhood of Victorian epoch homes, although renewal and gentrification of these houses has reduced the number of long haired hippies still living there.
In the 1970's through the 80's, gay freedom emerged as a subculture in the Castro District. The restaurants and clubs of this neighborhood at first provided refuge and then celebrated a tolerance of homosexual identity that become stitched into the fabric of the city as a whole with the martyrdom of SF Mayor Moscone and gay SF supervisor Harvey Milk, both gunned down by estranged conservative SF supervisor and former policeman and firefighter, Dan White. Years later, White committed suicide, a metaphoric end for the power of conservative politics within the city.
More often than not, San Francisco does not invent, but it brings together and amplifies trends. For example, the first city to pass a smoking ban within all public buildings was San Luis Obispo, California (1990), but the snowball effect rather quickly consummed the city in debate, and eventually led to state-wide ban of public and workplaces (1994) and even in bars (1998). Just 10th in the nation in terms of population (smaller than nearby San Jose, in fact), San Francisco remains a leading city in terms of cultural and political influence, which can only be compared with cities like Boston, Santa Fe, Seattle, and New Orleans. Polar opposite in the USA in terms of civic politics includes the great city of Chicago, where gangsterism and top down control is a tradition, particularly with rise of the Daleys, father and son mayors, establishing decades of authoritative rule. Thankfully, San Francisco is not that sort of city. |
| Jogging Along the Embarcadeo |
Origins of San Francisco's Wealth and Tolerance... The Gold Rush vigilante period from the 1850's through the 1870's, and of the anti-Asian sentiments of the early 20th century, eventually caused a broader acceptance of the diversity that created the city. Today, some 80 languages are represented in the San Francisco School District, and while Chinatown and North Beach were once considered dilapidated and derelict neighborhoods, they remain celebrated as central to the city's identity.
Originally, the wealth of San Francisco emerged from the Gold Rush as the city provided transit, banking, and merchant services to the tent communities of the motherlode. But, with the building of the transcontinental railroad in the 1860's, the city faced a crisis of being on the wrong side of the bay. City leaders rallied and built the world's busiest ferry system, trafficking workers from Oakland to San Francisco. Then, following a multiple of fires and the earthquake in 1906, the city organized itself again and again for a quick rebuilding and improvement of city services and building codes. Each time, city hall could do little from above as considerable bantering between the various powerful business and ethnic enclaves of the city forced renewal.
San Francisco, as a home to Spanish Presidio, has always been strategically important militarily, but after World War II, the city emerged as a favorite for union workers, engineers, and scientists who had pioneered the tech industries before and during WWII at the shipyards, airbases, weapons labs, and universities. Yet, San Francisco was also the original home of the United Nations, and oriented itself toward peace and prosperity.
California became at this point the nationally recognized sunny state with a sporty and sophisticated lifestyle, the dream and envie of teenagers within the midwest and eastcoast of the USA. While, Los Angeles was the magnet those searching fame and good weather, the San Francisco Bay area drained from the more intellectually stagnant regions of the nation. Just as New York was the gateway for immigration from Europe, San Francisco became a distributional center to other parts of the Bay Area.
But, today SFO, not the Port of San Francisco is that hub. San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf and Port Facilities have long since languished and moved elsewhere. Then, in the 1990's, as realestate values boomed on its many hilltop and water view locations, few protested when San Francisco's three military bases (Presidio, Hunter's Point, Treasure Island) were slated for decommissioning. As the talent drain continues, San Francisco continues to shuttle the best science and engineering talent from Asia, Latin America, and Europe through its airport, in effect swelling the number who call some part of California home. Although the bureaucratic rich California state capitol is two hours east in Sacramento, San Francisco remains the air transport hub, financial and legal powerbase, and cultural capitol of Northern California. |
| Outdoor Market Dining and Bay Bridge |
Sustaining Elements of a Tolerant Society... Recently, conservative pundits in the nation cringed as Nancy Pelosi, congressional representative for San Francisco took the gavel, becoming the first elected Madam Speaker of the United States Congress. Those of us who have a liberal bent were elated of course, but we also know that having survived the potboiler of San Francisco politics, Nancy remains the right person for the job. While the various elements of the city bicker over local details, the politics of being tolerant to the needs of the poor, the individual and the environment remain agreed upon.
Thus, was the great urbane Chronicle gossip columnist, Herb Caen, who dubbed the city "Bagdad by the Bay", emphasizing the crowded confluence of culture and wacky marketplace bargaining in a place where free speech, equal opportunity, and the pursuit of happiness are so highly prized. Visitors to San Francisco may find themselves alternately confronted on the street by homeless drug using and mentally ill refugees from other parts of the nation, and by the most opulent wealth and circumstances just a doorway away. While the debate about how to handle needs of the poor and disadvantages continues at city hall, these citizens coexist in close proximity and agreement with some of the wealthiest world citizens. San Franciscan's respect the power of the individual for free political and social expression.
With a view toward experiencing the culture of the city, rather than the ordinary tourist traps, I recommend viewing All of my tips, which include a number of underappreciated neighborhoods and activities within the city. Non-Top 5 VT members living in the city and having excellent insider tips include sean420, LolaSanFrancisco, guell, Smruti, machomikemd, and sunshine9689 |
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| Pros: | "San Francisco is One of the Most Unique Cultural Cities in the World" | | Cons: | "Prices are high, forcing hardscrabble on students, artists, and restaurant workers" | | In A Nutshell: | "Besides Visiting Fisherman's Wharf and Nob Hill, Mingle in the Neighborhoods." |
atufft's San Francisco Travel Tips
 Comments for atufft about San Francisco | | | | |
machomikemd Wed Jul 9, 2008 05:16 UTC
Most of the Parishioners of St. Mary's Church are Filipino-Americans nowadays due to the large prescence of my ethnic kins in SOMA. | sayedaburas Thu Mar 6, 2008 06:35 UTC
New update... New Pic.... All good....Best of luck (~_~) | volopolo Tue Mar 4, 2008 03:04 UTC
Great new tips in u SF page! volopolo | Ewingjr98 Mon Mar 3, 2008 06:08 UTC
Alan -- still adding new tips, I see. I once read the Palace of Fine Arts/Exploratoreum was also used by the early UN in San Francisco. |
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